Infinity (20 page)

He spun me around, sliding his big fingers across my cheek. “This is your last chance to run.”

Our eyes locked, taking in his mouth-watering scent in one long inhale. My clit throbbed, swaying from the intoxication of his essence. Mesmerized, I brushed a lock of cinnamon hair away from his brow.

“I’m not afraid of you, Big Red. Go hard or go home.”

His hands slid down my chest, landing on my hips, tugging me against him. His lips settled across my mouth softly. Moaning with delight, I opened my mouth, allowing his tongue to slide in between. He growled low and huskily, his tongue thrusting forcefully into my mouth. It was a take no prisoners, dominating, I will accept nothing less than total submission kiss, and I had no qualms with my response, I submitted.

One hand reached over and cupped my ass, the other intertwined in my hair possessively. It was like that was the trigger that set me totally aflame, it was all about him and from his response it was all about me. Time stood still, I was totally engrossed in his scent, his fingers that tightened in my hair, the thrust of tongue, his taste. I was on sensory overload as my fingers trailed down, cupping his considerable length in the palm of my hand.

“Infinity,” He groaned, thrusting against where I was rubbing him. “I want you so much,” he rasped, his voice sexy and seductive. Abruptly as the kiss started, it ended with his growl that rumbled in chest and his lips moving away. He buried his nose in the crook of my neck, inhaling deeply.

Instinctively, I tilted my neck giving him more access. I clutched his shirt frantically when the vision of me walking along a black sand beach with huge black fluffy wings protruding from my back as two wolves walked beside me protectively. A black wolf on my left and a red wolf on my right rubbed along my thighs possessively as I ran my fingers along their backs, then the vision disappeared.

His head snapped up, our eyes locked. His eyes were yellow and animal like, then transformed back to green.

My eyes widened with shock, “You! You’re one of the wolves from my dream.”

“What are you really, Infinity?” He asked gruffly.

I blinked because I honestly didn’t know and that admission was really scary. I licked my lips nervously before responding. “I don’t know.”

My eyes narrowed as I pushed back from him, not in fear but in curiosity. “But you know, don’t you? You know exactly what I am.”

Pulling me back tightly, he smiled wickedly sexily before responding. “I suspect what you might be. But that’s a longer and quite involved conversation that we don’t have time for right now. After the concert, yeah?”

“Yes, after the concert,” I whispered.

He dropped a quick kiss on my nose before letting me go. “You might have to fix your hair and makeup again.”

Turning around in the mirror I looked at my disheveled appearance. My hair was tussled, my lips swollen and well kissed. “Think they will figure out what we’re doing in here?” I asked sarcastically.

He looked at me smugly, “I hope so.”

I rolled my eyes while fixing my hair and putting on more lip-gloss. “We were just making out like some horny teens. Have you no shame?”

He widened his stance, watching me frantically fix my hair and makeup. “None when it comes to you.”

“Well, okay,” I took a deep breath, warming-up my voice then rushed by him with an exaggerated sway of my hips.

He opened the door, placing his large hand possessively on the small of my back. There was a hushed silence as the security detail looked at me with awe. Mason skirted to a stop when he saw Boulder looming possessively behind me.

I smirked when I saw that he was wearing the same attire as Boulder. “You’ve decided to leave management for a security detail position?”

He sniffed the air with narrowed eyes. “I’ve always been security, you just haven’t noticed.”

Boulder’s body tensed, with a low growl rumbling in his chest. “Well, you’ve been replaced, Tiger.” He snarled, his hand tensing on my back.

I leaned back against it reassuringly. “Message received, Big Red.” I winked and continued my vocal warm up as he ushered me along.

Mason kept pace, giving me a tight-lipped smile. “So are we good?”

“It’s always good, Mason. Tempers flare, but we’re family. So we’re good. That’s until you do something else so asinine that makes me want to kick your ass.”

His smile twisted, “So I guess we’re good for at least the end of the concert.”

“Looks like it. So out of my way, you’re disturbing my diva moment.” I skirted to a stop when I saw Kir and his entourage leaving the stage. I looked around angrily. “Where’s Savannah? Someone’s getting fired tonight for this tragic mistake.”

Boulder squeezed my shoulder, “Relax. Savannah did her job. It’s just a deliberate timing issue by that asshole.” He stepped in front of me and snarled at Kir, “I advise you to get your ass out of here before things get ugly.”

Kir stepped back, and I swore I saw incisors pressed against his bottom lip. “I’m not looking for trouble, wolf. I just want to speak to her.”

I rolled my eyes. “What the fuck? We have nothing to talk about. Where’s Savannah?”

Savannah skirted around the corner with panicked eyes. “No. No. No.” She screamed. “Kir! You were supposed to be cleared fifteen minutes ago.”

The security detail closed ranks around me with big, muscular bodies blocking my view. All I could hear was menacing growls, shrieks and hisses. It was like a regular wild kingdom.

I tried to nudge them, but it was like pushing against a brick wall. Nothing. “Savannah?” I heard her whispering something in a harsh voice. I tapped Boulder on the shoulder but got no response. “Boulder?”

“Infinity, hold on a second. I’m clearing something up here.” He responded in a gravelly voice.

I felt the two guns strapped to him as I reached around him, hugging his waist as I tried to peek past him. “Men, please. You can have a who’s penis is bigger contest after I get on stage. Right now I have a concert to do.”

The circle of muscled men moved and Kir and his entourage was gone. Savannah was red and flustered.

Boulder turned to look at me with an arched brow. “Sweetheart, you need to work on your patience.”

I pointed at him, “And you need to move out of my way. I have a show to do.” I looked at Savannah, “Don’t let that shit happen again. Understand?”

Savannah nodded with a grim expression. “I apologize. I should have been here. There is no excuse for allowing him to manipulate you like that.”

I kissed her cheek. “Good. As usual, we understand each other. Kir has a pea brain. It brings shame upon your vast intelligence to be outsmarted by the likes of him.”

“Fucking vampires!” she mumbled under her breathe. Or at least that’s what I thought she said.

“Huh?” I asked.

She looked at me with startled eyes, “I need a damn drink.”

“You and me both. Just don’t get started until the after party tonight.”

I hugged her before walking up the metal steps when Boulder pressed his hand into my lower back causing me to look at him over my shoulder.

He looked at me with concern. “We’re good?”

“Yes, but you and I need to talk later. Because if this is going to work, I need full disclosure on what the fuck is going on. Get me?”

Then his eyes did this weird feral thing that scared the shit out of me. “Yes! But you need to get me.” He stepped forward, pulling me towards him roughly. “You are mine! Don’t fucking bother to deny it. It’s fact, yes?”

I nodded.
Yes. Damn it.

He grabbed my chin softly, “Uh-uh. Verbal response is required here.”

I scowled. “Gawd, you’re such a pain. Yes! Okay?”

He kisses me hard. “What is mine I. Protect. Cherish. And love. Forever.”

Holy crap. He was melting me like a freaking idiot. Right here. In front of the world. I kissed him. Hard. “I understand and accept, Big Red.”

He gave me a series of rough pecks before letting go. “Good. Now get your fine ass up the stairs.”

I turned around, hustling up the stairs. “Damn, I never thought I would meet anyone that’s bossier than me.” I mumbled.

His eyes followed me as I sat carefully on the wing of a huge custom made raven prop with a body layered with soft downy material to look like feathers. Its face was encrusted with bright sparkly black crystals. I adjusted my legs against the soft feathers as the music thundered and the crowd roared.

“See you Big Red.”

“See you gorgeous.”

The huge raven rose slowly, hovering above the stage. The crowd cheered even louder. The lights of cell phones waved through the air like a sea. My heart thumped with excitement. The adrenal of performing, feeding off their energy coursed through me.

“I love you New York!” I screamed over the whistles and screams.

The crowd got more frantic as the lights brightened, giving the crowd a glimpse of me. The crowd went crazy as the stage background played my music videos. The spotlight flipped past the backup dancers standing on the black mini platforms posing.

They chanted “Infinity!” over and over.

My smile was huge. “Oh. My. Goodness. This crowd is crazy hyped....I love you. Thanks for coming out tonight for such a worthy cause.”

The backup singers swayed and hummed as the raven lowered inches above the stairs. I swayed down with each of my steps lighting in perfect synchrony. I stopped dramatically at the last step, raising my hand in the air to cue the dancers to hop down and start dancing. I continued walking towards the microphone stand, when Diego skirted across the stage over patting my butt before doing a crazy somersault away.

“Did you all see that? Diego is doing what he does best. Being bad.”

Being the show off that he is, he did another flip landing inches from me. The crowd roared. The drum kicked as I kissed him on the lips.

“Zoe, baby, please put him in check.”

Zoe playfully dragged him across the stage by his shirt as the crowd continued to scream.

“All right! Let’s go my ravens.” I place my microphone in the stand as the stage rotated allowing me to get closer to my fans. I raised my hands and the music roared to frenzy. My full-voiced belts were dark and heavy, dripping with all of tear stained emotion, while never losing the clarity or bravado that the song evoked so vividly.

I closed my eyes, letting the music and words flow through me. For this moment in time, I lost myself in the sheer awesomeness of the moment, delving into a head voice inflection then reverting back to my full-voiced zone. Thankful to forget the ominous thunderous dark clouds ahead that would no doubt bring me tears and remorse.

Torch

It’s a Wrap

In the shadows of the stage, he leaned against the wall with his arms crossed, waiting for the nightmare of a night to be over.

“Fucking, Maxim” he snarled, royally pissed that he allowed Maxim to blackmail him into taking this babysitting assignment.

Frustrated, he looked around at the flurry of dancers running around between songs. He pinching the bridge of his nose as the deafening noise level of the screaming audience brought him to the brink of losing control.

His
men
, her hired protection detail, looked at him warily, sensing his anger through their mental connection. As their leader, he had to pull it together, losing control could be deadly for anyone that got in his way, and losing control was not exactly the smart thing in front of humans. He took a calming breathe. In a couple of hours the concert would be over, they would do their final security sweep and be done with this shit.

His phone rang with Maxim’s number appearing on the Caller ID. “Yes?” he snarled.

Maxim was like him, not one for mixing words, getting straight to the point. “Torch, any problems?”

“Some minor backstage issues with some newly made vampires, but that was squashed quickly,” he barked. “Any Intel on if the Vampire Collective is still planning their attack?”

“Why does that matter? The deal is that your security team will protect her until I say they’re not.”

Growling under his breath, he stepped further into the shadows. “We are not some fucking babysitting service for some drugged out singer. I have important clients on hold because my best men are here, protecting her.” He hissed.

His men, his employees were an elite team of fierce wolf warriors, all handpicked and trained by him and all relying on him to do what was in their best interest for their livelihood. They were also his pack members and he was their Alpha leader, to have them wasting their time and skills on this bullshit assignment was a disgrace.

Maxim growled with menace. “Just say the word, Torch, and I’ll call this deal off.”

“This is not a deal. This is blackmail. You blackmailed me into taking this fucking assignment, on the agreement that you, as Wolf King, would approve and recognize us as an official pack before the Wolf Covenant.”

His pack was desperate for that approval and recognition by the governing body of the wolf-shifters, without it, their pack would fall apart. More importantly, as an Alpha of an official pack, he could carry out his plan to challenge Maxim for his throne as Wolf King.

Maxim laughed, “You forgot an important part of the deal. Official pack status will only be approved after you complete this assignment, and I determine what complete means. Not you.”

His fingers tightened around the phone, barely controlling the urge to hurl it across the room, shattering it into pieces. His men were the strongest, deadliest and wealthiest wolf-shifters in the US, but they couldn’t buy their way into the Wolf Covenant even if they wanted to. The Wolf King had a strangle-hold on which packs were accepted into the organization. Acceptance meant power, territory, and choice of the nearly extinct pure-blood, female wolf-shifters—females that took advantage of their rare commodity by only accepting and mating with pure-blood males that were members of the Covenant. Female shifters that lead the wolves around by the nose as they dangled what Boulder called their sexuality, a.k.a. ‘liquid gold’, like a red flag in front of a bull.